History

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Three ancient Kushite kingdoms existed consecutively in northern Sudan. This region was also known as the Nubian Kingdom and these civilizations flourished mainly along the Nile River from the first to the sixth cataracts. The kingdoms were influenced by, and in turn influenced Pharaonic Egypt. The borders of the ancient Egyptian and Sudanese kingdoms fluctuated greatly and what is now the upper third of present day Northern Sudan was during ancient times indistinguishable from Upper Egypt.

The year before independence in 1956, Southern Sudan embarked upon a civil war. During British rule, it was illegal for people living above the 10th parallel to go further south and people above the 8th parallel further north. The law was enacted to prevent the spread of malaria and other tropical diseases that had ravaged British troops. The resulting isolation between Northeners and Southerners and the conflicts of interest that ensued, among other reasons, sparked 17 years of civil war from 1955 to 1972. In 1972, the Addis Ababa Agreement led to a cessation of the north-south civil war and a degree of self-rule. This led to a ten-year hiatus in the civil war.

In September 1983, President Gaafar Nimeiry, created a Federated Sudan which included 3 federal states in Southern Sudan, in effect violating the Addis Ababa Agreement and weakening the self-rule in the process. It was the introduction of Sharia law and the dissolution of the 3 federal states in the South that led to the reinvigoration of the civil war.

After shortages of fuel and bread, a growing insurgency in the south, drought and famine, in 1984-5 another military coup led by Gen. Suwar al-Dahab restored a civilian democratic government. However the civil war intensified in lethality and the economy continued to deteriorate. In 1989 General Omar el-Bashir became president and chief of state, prime minister and chief of the armed forces.

In 1991, Osama Bin Laden moved to Sudan. His stated objective was to use his money, power and expertise in construction to help Sudan. He was attracted to Sudan because it claimed to be a purely Islamic state. He was responsible for building the road from Khartoum northward to the town of Shendi. He is purported to have lost much money on business ventures in Sudan; some estimates exceed $100 million USD[1]. In place of payment for his road venture, the Government of Sudan, strapped for cash, paid him with a defunct tanning factory, which in 1996 was confiscated when he was forcebly expelled at the request of the United States and he relocated to Afghanistan.

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The ongoing civil war has displaced more than 4 million southerners. Some fled into southern cities, such as Juba; others trekked as far north as Khartoum and even into Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, and other neighboring countries. These people were unable to grow food or earn money to feed themselves, and malnutrition and starvation became widespread. The lack of investment in the south also resulted in what international humanitarian organizations call a "lost generation" of people who lack educational opportunities, access to basic health care services, and little prospects for productive employment in the small and weak economies of the south or the north.

In early 2003 a new rebellion began in the western province of Darfur, during which the government committed terrible atrocities. In February 2004, the government declared victory over the rebellion but the rebels reported that they remained in control of rural areas and other reports indicated that widespread fighting continued.

Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004, although skirmishes in parts of the south reportedly continued. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the Naivasha treaty on 9 January2005, granting Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence. It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil equally, but also left both the North's and South's armies in place. John Garang, the south's elected co-vice president died in a helicopter crash on August 1, 2005, three weeks after being sworn in. It is hoped that the treaty will finally mark the end of a decades-long war that has claimed millions of lives.

Now politically, there is a "verbal" peace between the north and the south. But an inter-ethnic war has been raging in Darfur since 2003 between the so-called Arab and African peoples of that region. That war shows no immediate signs of abating despite several rounds of inconclusive peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Also in the east of Sudan on the border with Eritrea another conflict is brewing between the non-Arab Beja people and the central Government, related to the same sort of issues of ethnic tension and marginalisation that sparked the Darfur conflict.

Sudan has enjoyed brief spells of democracy in various years. The British have handed governance to a democratic government in 1956, which was toppled by a coup in 1958. Democratic parliamentary governments were also in place in the periods 1964-1969 and 1986-1989, the latter after Gen. Suwar al-Dahab voluntarily handed power.

The incident prompting the declaration of war was an attack on the Chadian town of Adré near the Sudanese border that led to the deaths of either one hundred rebels (as most news sources reported) or three hundred rebels. The Sudanese government was blamed for the attack, which was the second in the region in three days, but Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim denied any Sudanese involvement, "We are not for any escalation with Chad. We technically deny involvement in Chadian internal affairs." The Adre attack led to the declaration of war by Chad and the alleged deployment of the Chadian airforce into Sudanese airspace, which the Chadian government denies.

Politics

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Sudan has an authoritarian government in which all effective political power is in the hands of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Bashir and his party have controlled the government since he led the military coup on 30 June1989.

From 1983 to 1997, the country was divided into five regions in the north and three in the south, each headed by a military governor. After the April 6, 1985 military coup, regional assemblies were suspended. The RCC was abolished in 1996, and the ruling National Islamic Front changed its name to the National Congress Party. After 1997, the structure of regional administration was replaced by the creation of 26 states. The executives, cabinets, and senior-level state officials are appointed by the president, and their limited budgets are determined by and dispensed from Khartoum. The states, as a result, remain economically dependent upon the central government. Khartoum state, comprising the capital and outlying districts, is administered by a governor.

In December 1999, a power struggle climaxed between President al-Bashir and then-speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi, who was the NIF founder and an Islamist ideologue. Al-Turabi was stripped of his posts in the ruling party and the government, parliament was disbanded, the constitution was suspended, and a state of national emergency was declared by presidential decree. Parliament resumed in February 2001 after the December 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections, but the national emergency laws remain in effect. Al-Turabi was arrested in February 2001, and charged with being a threat to national security and the constitutional order for signing a memorandum of understanding with the SPLA. Since then his outspoken style has had him in prison or under house-arrest, his most recent stint beginning in March of 2004 and ending in June of 2005. During that time he was under house-arrest for his role in a failed coup attempt in September of 2003, an allegation he has denied. According to some reports, the president had no choice but to release him, given that a coalition of National Democratic Union (NDA) members headquartered in both Cairo and Eritrea, composed of the political parites known as the SPLM/A, Umma Party, Mirghani Party, and Turabi's own National People's Congress, were calling for his release at a time when an interim government was preparing to take over in accordance with the Naivasha agreement and the Machokos Accord.

Foreign relations

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Sudan has had a troubled relationship with many of its neighbors and much of the international community due to what is viewed as its aggressively Islamic stance. For much of the 1990s, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia formed an ad-hoc alliance called the "Front Line States" with support from the United States to check the influence of the National Islamic Front government. During this period, Sudan supported anti-Uganda rebel groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army in retaliation for Ugandan support of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Beginning from the mid-1990s Sudan gradually began to moderate its positions as a result of increased US pressure following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and the new development of oil fields previously in rebel hands. Sudan also has a territorial dispute with Egypt over the Hala'ib Triangle. Since 2003, the foreign relations of Sudan have centered on the support for ending the Second Sudanese Civil War and condemnation of government support for militias in the Darfur conflict.

On December 23, 2005Chad, Sudan's neighbor to the west, declared war on Sudan and accused the country of being the "common enemy of the nation (Chad)." This happened after the December 18 attack on Adre, which left about 100 people dead. A statement issued by Chadian government on December 23, accused Sudanese militias of making daily incursions into Chad, stealing cattle, killing innocent people and burning villages on the Chadian border. The statement went on to call for Chadians to form a patriotic front against Sudan.[2] The Organization of the Islamic Conference(OIC) have called on Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse growing tensions between the two countries.[3]

On December 27, 2005, Sudan became one of the few states to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. [4]

Geography

Template:MainImage:Africa Mt Dair.jpgImage:Sudd swamp.jpg Sudan is situated in Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea. It is dominated by the River Nile and its tributaries. With an area of 2,505,810 square kilometres (967,499 sq mi), it is the largest country in the continent and tenth largest in the world. The terrain is generally flat plains, though there are mountains in the east and west. The climate is tropical in the south; arid desert conditions in the north, with a rainy season from April to October. Soil erosion and desertification are environmental hazards.

Economy

Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces formidable economic problems, starting from its low level of per capita output. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which, along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate. Increased oil production, revived light industry, and expanded export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 6.1% in 2003.

Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the work force and contributing 39% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - including the long-standing civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian/animist south, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years.

Demographics

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In Sudan’s 1993 census, the population was calculated at 26 million. No comprehensive census has been carried out since that time due to the continuation of the civil war. Current estimates from the Central Intelligence Agency factbook as of 2004 estimate the population to be about 39 million. The population of metropolitan Khartoum (including Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North) is growing rapidly and ranges from 6-7 million, including around 2 million displaced persons from the southern war zone as well as western and eastern drought-affected areas.

Sudan has two distinct major cultures--Arabicized Black Africans and non-Arab Black Africans--with hundreds of ethnic and tribal divisions and language groups, which makes effective collaboration among them a major problem.

The northern states cover most of the Sudan and include most of the urban centers. Most of the 22 million Sudanese who live in this region are Arabic-speaking Muslims, though the majority also use a traditional non-Arabic mother tongue--e.g., Nubian, Beja, Fur, Nuban, Ingessana, etc. Among these are several distinct tribal groups: the Kababish of northern Kordofan, a camel-raising people; the Ga’alin (الجعلين), Rubatab (الرباطاب), Manasir (المناصير) and Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة) of the tribes settling along the rivers; the seminomadic Baggara of Kurdufan and Darfur; the Hamitic Beja in the Red Sea area and Nubians of the northern Nile areas, some of whom have been resettled on the Atbara River. Shokrya in the Butana land, Bataheen bordering the Ga’alin and Shorya in the south west of Butana. Rufaa, Halaween and many other tripes in the Gazeera region and on the banks of the Blue Nile and the Dindir region. The Negroid Nuba of southern Kurdufan and Fur in the western reaches of the country.

The southern region has a population of around 6 million and a predominantly rural, subsistence economy. This region has been negatively affected by war for all but 10 years since independence in 1956, resulting in serious neglect, lack of infrastructure development, and major destruction and displacement. More than 2 million people have died, and more than 4 million are internally displaced or have become refugees as a result of the civil war and war-related impacts. Here the Sudanese practice mainly indigenous traditional beliefs, although Christian missionaries have converted some. The south also contains many tribal groups and many more languages are used than in the north. The Dinka--whose population is estimated at more than 1 million--is the largest of the many black African tribes of the Sudan. Along with the Shilluk and the Nuer, they are among the Nilotic tribes. The Azande, Bor, and Jo Luo are “Sudanic” tribes in the west, and the Acholi and Lotuhu live in the extreme south, extending into Uganda.